Mail-bag deliverer for fast trains.



No. 642,46l. Patented Jan. 30, I900.

H. F. KILLEAN.

MAIL BAG DELIVEBER FOR FAST TRAINS.

(Application filed Oct. 28, 1899.)

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No. 642,46l. I Patented Jan. 30, I900. H. F. KILLEAN. MAI-L BAG DELIVERER FOR FAST TRAINS.

(Application filed Oct. 28, 1899.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2,

(No Model.)

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NETED STATES PATENT Prion.

HARRY F. KILLEAN, OF CLINTON, IOWA.

MAIL-BAG DELIVERER FOR FAST TRAINS.

PEOIFICATION foriicing part of Letters Patent No. 642,461, dated January 30, 1900.

Application filed October 26, 1899. Serial No. 734,867. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, HARRY F. KILLEAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Clinton,.in the county of Clinton and State of Iowa, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mail-Bag Deliverers for Fast Trains, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mail-bag deliverers for fast trains, my object being to provide novel and efficient means whereby mailponches maybe delivered from a car running at high speed in such manner as to avoid all danger of being drawn under the wheels of the train by the strong air-currents produced by the rapidly-moving cars, whereby reduction of speed of fast mail-trains may be ratus of this character which can be operated by compressed air taken from the air-reservoirs beneath cars which are equipped with air-brakes, in such manner, however, that the operation and efficiency of the brakes shall not be affected, no separate reservoir of compressed air being necessary for the operation of my invention.

To accomplish these objects, I have provided the apparatus which I clearly explain in the specification following and then particularly point out and define in the claims.

For the purposes of this description reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of part of a mail-coach equipped with myinvention. Fig. 2 is a transverse vertical section of the car, showing the mail-delivering apparatus in elevation. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing the mounting and bracing for the bottom or lower end of the cylinder. Fig. 4: is a detail sectional view illustrating the manner of pivotally mounting the cylinder. Fig. 5 is a view in elevation of the hinged gate or frame, illustrating the bufiers for receiving the impact of the former. Fig. 6 is a detail view of the three-way valve for controlling the admission and escape of the compressed air to and from the cylinder.

The reference-numeral 1 in said drawings indicates the body of any mail-coach, such as are in common use upon the various railway-lines, and the numeral 2 denotes the doorway or door-space upon one side of the car, through which the pouches filled with mail-matter are discharged from the interior of the car. I have shown a single doorway upon one side of the car, although in practice provision will be made for discharging the mail-pouches on both sides. As the apparatus will be a duplicate of that herein shown and explained, a specific description and illustration of the same will be unnecessary.

Upon the side sill or beam 3, between the two vertical sides of the door-space 2, I hinge one end of a frame or gate 4 of suitable width and length and provided with what may be termed a latticed section, formed of intersecting strips 5, arranged between the free end of the frame 4 and a cross-bar 6, which is near the center of the frame. My invention is not, however, confined to this or any specific construction, the purpose being to provide a structure which shall be both light and strong and capable of sustaining upon thelatticed section one or more mail-pouches filled with mail in the usual manner. The arrangement is such that the frame may be turned down to lie flat upon and across the .fioor of the car, its hinged edge being as near the edge of the sill 3 as possible, as shown in Fig. 2.

Beneath the floor or deck of the car I arrange a cylinder 7, the lower end of which has pivotal support upon a horizontal bearing 8, which is mounted upon cross-strips 8, which connect the lower ends of two downwardly-converging pairs of braces or hangers 9 and 9 the upper ends of the braces 9 being bolted to the lower face of the sill 3,while the ends of the braces 9 are secured to the under face of the car-floor. Said cylinder is provided with a piston 10, the rod 12 of which is packed through a stuffing-box in the upper end of the cylinder. ton-rod is pivotally connected to a lug 13 upon the cross-bar 6, a fork 14 being formed on the extremity of the piston-rod to straddle said lug.

A pipe 15 enters the lower end of the cyl- The end of said pisthe top of flat cars on a parallel track.

inder 7 to supply air under pressurebeneath the piston 10. The air is taken from the reservoir 16, which forms part of the system of air-brakes with which nearly all railwaycoaches are now equipped. The pipe 15 has a return bend or section 17, led up into the interior of the car at any convenient point as, for example, beside the door-spaceso that a person standing close to said pipe will be able to look out and see distinctly the point the train is approaching. A three-way valve or cook 18 of any suitable kind is provided in the upper portion of the return bend or section 17 where it is conveniently held by the person posted beside the doorway.

The frame or gate 4 being turned down flat upon the car-floor, one or more mail-pouches are placed upon the latticed section, said pouches being those which have to be delivered at the point which the train is approaching. The operator or route agent takes his position by the return-bend 17 of the pipe 15 with his hand on the closed valve 18, and when the proper point is reached he throws said valve open and the air under pressure rushes from the reservoir 16 through said pipe, entering the cylinder beneath the piston 10 and driving it up in said cylinder rapidly. This movement is communicated through the piston-rod 12 to the frame or gate i,which turns upon its hinge-bearings 4%, the pivotal support of the lower end of the cylinder permitting it to vibrate so that the piston-rod can have a compound movement partly in the longitudinal line of the piston-rod and partly in a short are of a circle having its center at the axis of the hinge connecting the gate to the sill 3.

The gate is provided with bulfers or cushions 18, which may be either elastic or yielding and formed of rubber or other suitable material. These arrest the frame and take up the shock of its impact. The mail-pouches upon the frame are projected by the action of the cylinder and piston through the open door-space and to such a distance from the moving train as to effectually protect the pouches or sacks from being drawn under the wheels by the air-currents. In the case of a train of mail-coaches, with or without other cars, running at the high speed which is now called for by railway schedules and mail contracts there is a very strong suction of air adjacent to the bodies of the cars, which has force enough even when no wind is blowing to draw a pouch filled with mail under the cars, and it is by no means an unusual occurrence that mail-matter is destroyed by the wheels in this manner. It is sometimes necessary also to deliver mail-pouches over y invention provides simple, inexpensive, and easily-operated means for securing all these results, and the expense of equipping a car is very small, as neither mechanism for compressing air nor a separate reservoir for the compressed air is required.

The volume of air used in operating the gate or frame in the manner described is very small and has no efiiect upon the air-brakes.

When the gate has been operated in the manner described and it is desired to return it to the normal position, it is only necessary for the operator to close it manually after having adjusted the three-way cock to exhaust the air from the cylinder, as will be obvious.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-- 1. In an apparatus for delivering mailpouches from trains, the combination with a gate or frame hinged at its outer edge to a fixed support opposite or adjacent to a doorway or opening in the side of the car and arranged to fold down against the floor of the car, of a cylinder and piston arranged beneath the car, the piston-rod being connected to said gate, and a pipe from the compressedair reservoir of the air-brake system entering the lower end of the cylinder beneath the piston, substantially as described.

2. In an apparatus for delivering mailpouches from trains in motion, the combination with a gate hinged to the floor of the car at or near one side, of a cylinder mounted on apivoted axis beneath said gate and car-floor, a piston in said cylinder having a piston-rod connected to the gate, and a pipe to introduce air under pressure from the air-brake reser* voir, substantially as described.

3. In an apparatus for delivering mailpouches from cars in motion, the combination with a gate, or frame having one end hinged at or near one side of the car, of a cylinder for compressed air having its lower end on a pivotal axis beneath the gate, a piston in said cylinder,a piston-rod having its end pivotally connected to the gate, a pipe to lead com pressed air from the air-brake reservoir, and a valve, or cut-0E in said pipe, substantially as described.

4. In an apparatus for delivering mail pouches from cars in motion, the combination with a gate or frame having one end hinged at or near the side of the car, of a cylinder having its lower end on a pivotal axis beneath the car and gate, a piston and piston-rod, the end of the latter pivotally connected to the gate, a pipe from the air-brake reservoir to said cylinder, said pipe having a return-bend brought into the car, and a valve or cook in the same, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HARRY F. KILLEAN. Witnesses:

R. O. LANGAN,

JED II. FLANAGAN. 

